Egypt seeks to halt Ethiopian dam
Egypt has launched a diplomatic offensive to convince European powers to pressure Ethiopia against building the Renaissance Dam along current specifications.
CAIRO — Cairo has begun a diplomatic campaign on two tracks, one explicit and one undeclared, with European countries and donor parties. This came after the Egyptian government escalated its campaign against the Ethiopian Renaissance Dam under its current specifications to protect Egypt’s historic interests in Nile water, following failed technical negotiations with Ethiopia.
“The campaign initiated by Egypt is on two tracks, one that is explicit and involves meetings by Egypt’s ministers of water and foreign relations with their counterparts in countries with influence in the Nile Basin, and one that is undeclared and involves meetings by Egypt’s ambassadors in these countries. The two tracks aim to persuade the international community to reject the dam’s construction because it may lead to further conflict and instability in the region of the Nile Basin,” a diplomatic source in contact with the Egyptian government told Al-Monitor.
The source, who preferred to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the issue with the Egyptian government, said, “More negotiations with Ethiopia only waste time and directly threaten Egypt’s water security. We realized that Ethiopia doesn’t want genuine solutions to end the crisis, but is only trying to portray Egypt as approving of the dam’s construction to facilitate access to funding. But [Ethiopia] didn’t provide genuine guarantees that the dam will not affect Egypt and has shown no intention to amend the technical specifications to minimize the potential risks according to the report by the international experts’ committee, which recommended reconsidering the dam’s safety studies.”
On Feb. 6, Egypt’s minister of water resources and irrigation visited Italy, where he explained the critical water situation in Egypt, the water problems that recur every year and Egyptian fears of the dam’s impact on the country’s water security. Afterward, Egypt’s Ministry of Water said in a statement, of which Al-Monitor has obtained a copy, that “the visit has achieved its goal. Italy has understood Egyptian concerns.”
